


Untitled.

by quondam



Category: Mass Effect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-06
Updated: 2012-11-06
Packaged: 2017-11-18 02:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/555714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quondam/pseuds/quondam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the genophage is cured, Shepard and Wrex share a moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled.

Shepard had been to Tuchanka before, many times, but it wasn’t until _now_ that she saw it for more than the rubble that the planet had been reduced to. It could be beautiful, perhaps it even had once been, and the mood that most of the Krogan had fallen into in the hours since the cure had been dispersed through the Shroud facility had reached the kind of heights Shepard didn’t even think their species possessed. For a very brief moment in time, there wasn’t talk of fighting or tearing limbs from their real and theoretical enemies… they were just happy.

The loss of Mordin hit her hard, but she’d mourn later for him, locked away in her cabin by herself just as she always grieved for the others that hadn’t made it out of whatever firefight or mission they’d been on. For the time being, Shepard simply stood outside, taking in the orangey glow the entire planet seemed to have, but especially so as the day fell away and gave into night. She leaned forward on a particularly battered piece of stone wall, the ancient carved decorations worn away with time and destruction. Behind her, she heard the heavy-footed steps of a Krogan. She knew who it was without looking back.

“Are you a father yet?” Shepard teased Wrex, forcing a small grin to the corner of her mouth, though her eyes remained focused on the view of the distance around them.

He rumbled with laughter, as not even the aged and scarred Krogan had been one to be spared by the mirth spread by the curing of the genophage. A large paw patted into her back, only jostling her slightly. “I better be after the celebrations tonight.”

They’d done good, all of them. There had been reasons in the past, Shepard knew, for the genophage to have been enacted. At the time, it had been necessary. Wrong and cruel, but necessary. And before now, Shepard had stood on the other side of the fence in the debate, positive that it was never quite the time to begin thinking of a fix-all for this particular problem. Now though, after her friendship with Wrex and the sacrifices she’d seen given by Eve Bakara… it was time. Finally, everything was right.

“Maybe help us kill the Reapers before you get knee-deep in baby Krogan,” Shepard suggested, and stood up fully, shifting her weight from where she’d used the piece of wall as support. “Just a suggestion.”

“You can count on it,” Wrex said, “the only thing Krogan love more than battle is going to battle knowing there will be mating afterward.”

Shepard was silent, though she nodded her head in an acknowledgement of the words. She was always quiet, a woman of few words except when someone needed a dressing down, but there was another layer.  
Wrex, despite how vastly different he was from her and her race, noticed. “What is it?”

Her lips flattened into a line, arms casually crossed over her chest, eyes still avoiding his own. Shepard, as plain as day, spoke her confession. “I can’t have children. Not after Cerberus rebuilt me.”

Though most preferred to think that the Krogan had no soft side, Wrex knew the truth was that they just didn’t often show it. It was a sign of weakness, after all, and they were proficient battlemasters in every sense, so willingly giving away their weakest points had never been high on any Krogan’s list. He was old, a very old Krogan, without too much time left, and he knew just how very few times he’d shown that small amount of kindness in all his centuries. One of those occurrences had been long ago, when he’d been young and foolish and drunk on the hope that he’d be one of the Krogan lucky enough to be able to pass on his DNA to the next generation. He hadn’t been, though, and he would always remember the loss when his female had a stillbirth, and the anger that had raged in him after the sadness had gone. 

He looked at Shepard now, and felt something of that old pain bubbling up, even despite the joy he felt at what they’d accomplished today. In fact, it was worse because of what she’d done for them… because there wouldn’t be a cure for what she couldn’t have. 

“If there’s anything we’ve had to learn, Shepard, it’s that there’s more to life than reproducing.”

“Like killing and maiming?” She deflected.

Wrex let out a polite bit of laughter, but kept it short. “That, too.” He gave her the benefit of not bothering to set his gaze on her, joining Shepard in looking out over his home planet. “Didn’t know you wanted little humans.”

Her shoulders rolled half an inch in something of an apathetic shrug. “I’m not going to make it out of this fight anyway, so it doesn’t matter much.”

As far as fighters went, Shepard was one of the best. She was strong, she was fierce, and above all, she was resourceful. Put her back to a wall with twenty mercs heading her way, and she’d find a way out of it with a toothpick and a piece of string. So hearing her speak truthfully on the endeavors they all faced left him unsettled. If anyone should have been going into this fight with any kind of odds of making it out alive, it was her.

“You’ll survive,” he said, “I’ll make sure of it.”

“You better,” Shepard said with the hint of a smile on her lips. She’d missed Wrex during the months she’d worked with Cerberus and then ended up in Vancouver, held hostage by her own military. They both had their differences, but even more than that, they had each other’s backs.

She made move to leave after that, stepping away from the ledge and heading back towards the convoy of vehicles in the distance. Wrex caught her arm with a large hand, held her still in her tracks.

“It doesn’t make you less, Shepard.”

Twisting at the waist, turning only enough to meet his eyes, she stood in silence. Tears—tears she’d never shed in front of another, not since she was a child—threatened to spill, burning in her eyes, the feeling even caught in the back of her throat. “I know.”

“You don’t,” he replied, stern but not accusing. “The things you’re doing, you’ll be mother to this whole damn galaxy as far as I’m concerned.” His hand relaxed his grip and released her altogether.

Shepard gave no sound that she’d heard his sentiments at first, just turned back in the direction she was headed. “Thanks,” she said before getting too far. Her words were heavy, weighed down with the thoughts she didn’t share.

Wrex watched her go. “I’ll see you when this is all over.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you at the end.”  
  
  



End file.
